Dottie+H.


 * SUMMARY: Dottie died on February 23, 1908 after an abortion perpetrated by a Chicago physician.**

"Mrs. H," whom I dubbed "Dottie," underwent an abortion at the hands of a physician on February 18, 1908.

Two days later she began to suffer from vomiting and abdominal pain. Three days after that, on February 23, she arrived at Cook County hospital "in stuporous condition." Her vital signs were of concern but not enough to be alarming: Pulse of 120, respirations of 28, and a temperature of 98.6.

Two hours after admission her respiration rate was the same and her temperature slightly lower at 98 degrees. Her pulse, however, had shot up to 160. Dottie was clearly decompensating. She died that same day.

Source: "A Study Of and Deductions From Fifty Fatal Cases of Puerperal Fever," Dr. Herbert Marion Stowe, //Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics//, 1912, and

Cook County records show a Katherine Holmes, age 40, who died February 23, 1908 at Cook County Hospital, with her body removed that day to Thompson Bros.